This is what happens

when you put a politician in charge of the Border Patrol.

Border Patrol officials have pulled thousands of rifles from field agents in a large-scale effort to refurbish the weaponry, prompting the rank-and-file to complain that they've been left with the dangerous options of sharing guns or being disarmed altogether. 

Nearly one-third of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's 16,300 M4 carbine rifles were tested by the agency's office of training and development, which determined that more than 2,000 had the potential for malfunction. The rate of nearly 40 percent was "more than we are comfortable with,” said CBP Deputy Chief Ron Vitiello.

Keep an eye on that Vitiello name, because towards the end of the piece he vomits forth this bit of stupidity:

Prather, who used the M4 throughout his law-enforcement career, said the weapon is “very robust” and that any issues found in the Border Patrol inspections are likely simple fixes. 

“All you need to do is pull out the old firing pin and put in the new one and the rifle is ready to go,” he said. 

Vitiello said that may be the case, but the work must be done by a specialist. 

“It may be easy to replace a firing pin, but these are things that should be done by a professional,” he said.

I underlined that stupidity part, and this shows that either Vitiello is a mouth-breathing moron, or just another political flunkey making up bullshit excuses to cover his boss's ass.  The firing pin is removed  when you strip the rifle down to clean it.  It's not some part that you have to dig out with microscopic tools, it slides out of the bolt assembly after you remove one pin.  Replacing the firing pin is as simple as that - pull one pin, tilt the bolt assembly, let the old firing pin slide out and put the new one in.

You don't need to be a professional to do this, otherwise you would have to be a "professional" just to strip and clean the rifle.  Do they have "professionals" cleaning each rifle?  No, they don't.  The agents are trained to clean their rifles, as they should be.  But now we have massive amounts of rifles pulled from duty and Border Patrol agents being put in harms way all because some douche-nozzle thinks that a firing pin needs to be replaced by a "professional"?

Someone either has a fat government contract to perform a two-minute action, or someone is trying to get Border Patrol agents killed.  With this administration, either is possible.